It is well known that when a painter is painting, he may very well arrive at a time when he stops painting for a long interval, such as for overnight, but his brush, roller, and paint pad are still loaded with paint. Under those ordinary circumstances, he must somehow clean or store his tools so that they will again be ready to be used when he resumes painting. It is of course a chore and involves time and expense to clean the tools to a condition where they are freed of the paint and therefore pliable and ready for fresh use upon resuming painting.
The present invention obviates the requirement for cleaning the paint from the tools when interrupting the painting, and this is basically accomplished by providing an air-tight storage container for receiving the tools so that they can be stored at a length of time, such as overnight, without having the residual paint that is on the tools dry and harden and thereby render the tools unusable.
The prior art is already aware of storage and other receptacles for receiving paint tools, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,926 shows an airtight storage container. Further, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,838,781 and 2,909,797 and 4,010,866 and 4,669,609 show tool trays which are compartmentalized for receiving various tools for painting or the like.
The present invention differs from the prior art in that it provides an air-tight storage container which has a planar floor having wordings thereon for designating the storage location of the paint roller, and the paint brush, and the paint pad, and the arrangement is such that the storage container is of a minimum size, but can store these tools which are of maximum conventional size and do so in the most efficient manner. Further, the present container is arranged so that it can be readily cleaned of the paint deposited therein by those tools, and this is achieved because the floor is not interrupted with any pockets or reservoirs for receiving these tools nor does it have any clips thereon and which must therefore be cleaned around and through when the container is to be cleaned. Accordingly, the present invention can be manufactured by means of simplified manufacturing processes, such as molding or stamping for complete presentation of the item, and additional clips, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,926 need not be applied, but the tools in the present invention will nevertheless be retained securely in their positions without sliding around in the container which can be carried and tipped without upsetting the location of the tools. Still further, the container is arranged so that tools of various sizes can be stored in their respective storage areas, and all three types of the aforementioned tools are specifically and specially stored in the container of this invention. Accordingly, these aforementioned features provide for the creation of a container which is smaller and more versatile than those of the prior art, and this container is less expensive to produce and to ship and is therefore more appealing to the user.
More specifically, the present invention is unique in that it provides an air-tight container which has separated areas for storage of several different types of painting tools, and these areas are provided by partitions and cradles which are an integral part of the container. As such, the tools are kept separated and in place without the use of fasteners or reservoirs or depressions for receiving the tools, all as shown in the prior art mentioned herein. Further, the container of this invention has its partition and cradle arranged so that it can accommodate tools of different shapes and sizes, namely, one size receives all.
Finally, the container of this invention has words imposed thereon so that the user will know the precise positioning for the roller and the brush and the pad, and those three areas are physically separated from each other by the structure of the container, and thus different color paints can actually be on the various tools but the paints will not run into each other to contaminate a tool of one color by the different color paint from another tool. Also, all of the painting ends of the tools, such as the bristles and the roller and the pad itself are all disposed adjacent the side walls of the container, rather than to the interior of the container and thus toward each other, and the location of the words is such that it assists in that desirable placement of the tools. These features persist, even though the tools themselves may be of various sizes, such as the length of the roller itself and the width of the paint brushes and the pad. To further accommodate the feature of the absence of the paint running from one tool to another when placed in the container, the container is a horizontally planar on the bottom surface, rather than any inclined surfaces or wells toward which the paint could run.
Accordingly, the container has a lid which is completely removable, rather than being hinged thereto, and thus the lid can be set aside when the base of the container is to be accessible. When the tools are in the base and the lid is applied in the air-tight relationship, then the tools can be retained therein for short periods of time, without drying or hardening, and that time may be sufficient for a break from painting, a change of shifts, or even an overnight hiatus.